Operating system
support
Availability, price and employee familiarity
often determines which operating systems are offered
on dedicated servers. Variations of
Linux (open-source
operating systems), are often included at no
charge to the customer. However,
Microsoft requires additional license fees on
all their products, thus increasing the monthly cost
of a dedicated server running a
Windows operating system. Commercial operating
systems include Microsoft Windows Server, provided
through a special program called Microsoft SPLA. Red
Hat Enterprise is a commercial version of Linux
offered to hosting providers on a monthly fee basis.
The monthly fee provides OS updates through the
Red Hat Network using an application called
up2date. Other operating systems are available from
the open source community at no charge. These
include
CentOS,
Fedora Core,
Debian, and many other Linux distributions or
BSD systems
FreeBSD,
NetBSD,
OpenBSD.
Support for any of the operating systems above
typically depends on the level of management offered
with a particular dedicated server plan. Operating
system support may include updates to the core
system in order to acquire the latest security
fixes, patches, and system-wide vulnerability
resolutions. Updates to core operating systems
include kernel upgrades, service packs, application
updates, and security patches that keep server
secure and safe. Operating system updates and
support relieves the burden of server management
from the dedicated server owner.
Bandwidth &
Connectivity
Bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate or the
amount of data that can be carried from one point to
another in a given time period (usually a second)
and is often represented in bits (of data) per
second (bps). For example, visitors to your server,
web site, or applications utilize
bandwidth as the traffic moves from your server
to the Internet and vice versa. Connectivity refers
to the “access providers” that supply bandwidth, or
data transfer rate, through various connection
points across a network or footprint to one or
multiple data centers where dedicated servers are
housed.
Bandwidth measurements are defined (per
telecom standards) as the following:
- First – 95th (measured using average
bits and speed of transfer)
- Second – Unmetered (measured in speed or
bits)
- Third – Total Transfer (measured in bytes
transferred)
95th Method: Line Speed, billed on the
95th percentile, average or peak usage, refers to
the speed in which data flows from the server or
device. The measurement can be compared to mph
(Miles Per Hour), or how fast something travels.
Line Speed is measured using bits per second,
kilobits per second, megabits per second, and
gigabits per second.
Unmetered Method: The second bandwidth
measurement is Unmetered service where providers cap
or control the “top line” speed for a server. Top
line speed in Unmetered bandwidth is the total Mbit/s
allocated to the server and configured on the switch
level. For example, if you purchase 10 Mbit/s
Unmetered bandwidth, the top line speed would be 10
Mbit/s. 10 Mbit/s would result in the provider
controlling the speed transfers take place while
providing the ability for the dedicated server owner
to not be charged with bandwidth overages. Unmetered
bandwidth services usually incur an additional
charge.
Total Transfer Method: Some providers will
calculate the Total Transfer, the measurement of
actual data leaving and coming from the server,
measured in bytes. Measurement between providers
varies and includes one of the following equations:
- Method 1: IN TRAFFIC + OUT TRAFFIC = TOTAL
TRANSFER
- Method 2: IN TRAFFIC = TOTAL TRANSFER
- Method 3: OUT TRAFFIC = TOTAL TRANSFER
One of the reasons people choose to outsource
dedicated servers is the availability of high
powered networks from multiple providers. As
dedicated server providers utilize massive amounts
of bandwidth, they are able to secure lower volume
based pricing to include a multi-provider blend of
bandwidth. To achieve the same type of network
without a multi-provider blend of bandwidth, a large
investment in core routers, long term contracts, and
expensive monthly bills would need to be in place.
The expenses needed to develop a network without a
multi-provider blend of bandwidth does not make
sense economically for hosting providers.
Many dedicated server providers include a
service level agreement) based on
network uptime. Some dedicated server hosting
providers offer a 100% uptime guarantee on their
network. By securing multiple vendors for
connectivity and using redundant hardware, providers
are able to guarantee higher uptimes; usually
between 99-100% uptime if they are a higher quality
provider. One aspect of higher quality providers is
they are mostly likely
multi-homed across multiple quality uplink
providers, which in turn, provides significant
redundancy in the event one goes down in addition to
potentially improved routes to destinations.
Bandwidth consumption over the last several years
has shifted from a per megabit usage model to a per
gigabyte usage model. Bandwidth was traditionally
measured in line speed access that included the
ability to purchase needed megabits at a given
monthly cost. As the shared hosting model developed,
the trend towards gigabyte or total bytes
transferred, replaced the megabit line speed model
so dedicated server providers started offering per
gigabyte.
Prominent players in the dedicated server market
offer large amounts of bandwidth ranging from 500
gigabytes to 3000 gigabytes using the “overselling”
model. It is not uncommon for major players to
provide dedicated servers with 1Terabyte (TB) of
bandwidth or higher. Usage models based on the byte
level measurement usually include a given amount of
bandwidth with each server and a price per gigabyte
after a certain threshold has been reached. Expect
to pay additional fees for bandwidth overage usage.
For example, if a dedicated server has been given
3000 gigabytes of bandwidth per month and the
customer uses 5000 gigabytes of bandwidth within the
billing period, the additional 2000 gigabytes of
bandwidth will be invoiced as bandwidth overage.
Each provider has a different model for billing. As
of yet, no industry standards have been set.
Management
To date, no industry standards have been set to
clearly define the management role of dedicated
server providers. What this means is that each
provider will use industry standard terms, but each
provider will define them differently. For some
dedicated server providers, fully managed is defined
as having a web based control panel while other
providers define it as having dedicated system
engineers readily available to handle all server and
network related functions of the dedicated server
provider.
Server management can include some or all of the
following:
Dedicated hosting server providers define their
level of management based on the services they
provide. In comparison, fully managed could equal
self managed from provider to provider.
Administrative maintenance of the operating
system, often including upgrades,
security patches, and sometimes even
daemon updates are included. Differing levels of
management may include adding users, domains, daemon
configuration, or even custom programming.
Dedicated server hosting providers may provide
the following types of server managed support:
- Fully Managed - Includes monitoring,
software updates, reboots, security patches and
operating system upgrades. Customers are
completely hands-off.
- Managed - Includes medium level of
management, monitoring, updates, and a limited
amount of support. Customers may perform
specific tasks.
- Self Managed - Includes regular monitoring
and some maintenance. Customers provide most
operations and tasks on dedicated server.
- Unmanaged - Little to no involvement from
service provider. Customers provide all
maintenance, upgrades, patches, and security.
Note: The provider will continue to
maintain security on the network regardless of
support level.
Security
Dedicated hosting server providers utilize
extreme security measures to ensure the safety of
data stored on their network of servers. Providers
will often deploy various software programs for
scanning systems and networks for obtrusive
invaders, spammers, hackers, and other harmful
problems such as
Trojans, worms, and
eggdrops (see "Limitations" below).
Linux and
Windows use different software for security
protection.
Software
Providers often bill for dedicated servers on a
fixed monthly price to include specific software
packages. Over the years, software vendors realized
the significant market opportunity to bundle their
software with dedicated servers. They have since
started introducing pricing models that allow
dedicated hosting providers the ability to purchase
and resell software based on reduced monthly fees.
Microsoft offers software licenses through a
program called the Service Provider License
Agreement. The SPLA model provides use of Microsoft
products through a monthly user or processor based
fee. SPLA software includes the Windows Operating
System, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange
Server, Microsoft SharePoint and shoutcast hosting,
and many other server based products.
Dedicated Server Providers usually offer the
ability to select the software you want installed on
a dedicated server. Depending on the overall usage
of the server, this will include your choice of
operating system, database, and specific
applications. Servers can be customized and tailored
specific to the customer’s needs and requirements.
Other software applications available are
specialized web hosting specific programs called
control panels. Control panel software is an all
inclusive set of software applications, server
applications, and automation tools that can be
installed on a dedicated server. Control panels
include integration into web servers, database
applications, programming languages, application
deployment, server administration tasks, and include
the ability to automate tasks via a web based front
end.
Most dedicated servers are packaged with a
control panel. Control panels are often confused
with management tools, but these control panels are
actually web based automation tools created to help
automate the process of web site creation and server
management. Control panels should not be confused
with a full server management solution by a
dedicated hosting provider.
Limitations
Many providers do not allow
IRC (bots, clients or daemons). This is due to
rogue IRC users triggering
DDoS attacks against the provider, which may
overwhelm their networks, lowering service quality
for all customers.
Adult content is disallowed by many providers as
it may either be of questionable legality or consume
large amounts of bandwidth.
Spam is usually prohibited by the provider's
Acceptable Use Policy.
Extra features
Useful features for dedicated servers may be
included, or cost additional monthly fees:
- Serial Console or
KVM/IP - this is used to gain access to a
server if for some reason the user is unable to
get in via normal means (e.g.
ssh), and permits a server to be recovered
from boot-time configuration faults, such as
filesystem recovery.
- Automated restore of OS - an automated
system can be used to restore the server to its
original configuration.
- Remote Backup Space - ssh/FTP
space to backup data stored on the server.
-
ColdFusion (MX) - ColdFusion is the rapid
server scripting environment for creating
Rich Internet Applications.
-
SQL Server - Server dedicated to hosting
Microsoft SQL databases and typically incur
additional hosting fees.
- Oracle - Server dedicated to hosting Oracle
databases and typically incur additional hosting
fees.
